The new bridge will restore tidal flow into the river basin improving water quality, restoring native salt marsh habitat, increasing resilience of the floodplain, and reviving the river’s ability to sequester heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

This large environmental project is a true collaborative effort among the Town of Wellfleet, National Park Service, Cape Cod National Seashore, National Resources Conservation Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Friends of Herring River as well as the contractor and consultant partners. EP will oversee construction with Weston & Sampson as the Owner’s Project Representatives. MIG Corporation has mobilized and is starting the initial phase of construction work.

For more project details, see Friends of Herring River’s site: https://herringriver.org/news/restoration-updates/

October 2023 Update

The team is making steady progress on the Herring River Restoration Project!

The pile foundations are in place and the pier caps are being completed for the temporary bridge. A significant portion of the stone armor scour protection is in place. The temporary bridge superstructure work will be underway in October and November, allowing work to then commence on removing the old dike and the permanent bridge abutments. MIG Construction has completed over $5M of work to date on this $29M project.

February 2024 Update

Construction of the new, temporary bridge over Herring River has been completed by MIG Construction. The final step before the bridge can be open to traffic is the relocation of overhead utilities which will be commencing in the coming weeks.

The temporary bridge will now allow work to begin on construction of the foundations for the new bridge and tide gates. When this work is completed, the existing dike can be removed. The new bridge will restore tidal flow into the river basin improving water quality, restoring native salt marsh habitat, increasing resilience of the floodplain, and reviving the river’s ability to sequester heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Over $9M of construction work has been completed to date from the $29.9M construction contract.

The post Herring River Restoration Groundbreaking & Updates appeared first on Environmental Partners.

The site is surrounded by National Seashore Property with more than a dozen certified vernal pools within a ½ mile radius. Vernal pools are ephemeral pools of water underlain by a peat layer, that typically fill with water in the spring with winter snowmelt and spring rains, and often (but not always) disappear by summer’s end.

As part of the source approval process and long-term pumping tests, EP conducted extensive monitoring of water levels at three vernal pools, both within the vernal pools and the aquifer beneath the vernal pool. A detailed groundwater model was developed to evaluate long term wellfield pumping effects to water levels in the vernal pools. EP has installed remote water level monitoring systems at seven vernal pools to monitor water levels in real time during wellfield operation. These data will be compared with two years of background data and used to update the vernal pool groundwater model biennially.

This scope has been coordinated with the Cape Cod National Seashore, Cape Cod Commission and MassDEP.

The post Vernal Pool Monitoring and Modeling in Eastham appeared first on Environmental Partners.

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Margot Schoenfelder, PE, AICP and Jim McGonagle, City of Newton, Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works, presented “Fostering Safe & Sustainable Communities.”

Andrew Grota, P.E., Ziad F. Kary, P.E, Tom O’Connor, TOWN OF DENNIS, MA Deputy DPW Director, and Chad Contonio, Town of Dennis’ Transfer Station Foreman, presented “Improvements in Recycling & Solid Waste Handling.”

The post EP Presents NEAPWA Summer Conference 2023 appeared first on Environmental Partners.

EP is working with the Town to develop water supply alternatives to maximize the Town’s allowable groundwater withdrawal volumes while maintaining the high-quality water historically supplied to the Town. EP conducted a desktop evaluation of potential public water supply sites for the Town and identified two potential new source water supply sites.

As is the situation with many municipalities, new source exploration is complex, not only drilling and testing but groundwater modeling to evaluate potential impacts to water quality due to contaminant migration from nearby sources and potential pumping impacts to surface water. In addition to navigating these complexities, EP prioritizes coordination with regulators and stakeholders as an important part of the new source process and is coordinating all activities in advance with MassDEP.

The post Groveland New Source Investigation appeared first on Environmental Partners.

Keeping the station fully operational while construction was on-going, EP developed a phased approach to expand the recycling area, improve traffic circulation and site safety, and provide a new office and maintenance building for DPW staff. Completed in May 2022, construction was overseen by EP and Pomroy Associates, the Town’s OPM for the project.

The post Dennis Transfer Station Improvements Update appeared first on Environmental Partners.

Radial collector well systems consist of horizontal radial wells used to extract water from an aquifer with induced infiltration from a surface water source like a river or lake. Under proper conditions radial collector wells can pump large quantities of water efficiently and economically and filtration through the bottom sediments can improve water quality relative to a traditional intake structure.

To evaluate the feasibility of a radial collector well system beneath the Merrimack River, a series of borings were installed to characterize subsurface hydrogeology and evaluate the horizontal and vertical extent of aquifer material.

The post Hydrogeological Feasibility Study appeared first on Environmental Partners.

Encouraging and investing in students seeking STEAM careers and addressing the need for diversity within these professions, EP has created 3 unique scholarship opportunities for students in historically under-represented populations to begin, continue, and/or finish their journeys in higher education when pursuing degrees in environmental science, civil engineering, environmental engineering, and/or transportation engineering.

Do you have a future STEAM innovator in your life? Check out the Boston Children’s Museum’s STEAM discovery programs to learn and engage! https://bostonchildrensmuseum.org/steam-learning-and-discovery/

The post EP Celebrates National STEAM Day! appeared first on Environmental Partners.

EP is working with the Town of Foxborough to evaluate water supply alternatives at their Witch Pond site. Witch Pond is an Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and NHESP Habitat for Rare Wildlife and Habitat of Rare Species. Several water supply sources are located near the Witch Pond Complex, including Foxborough, Mansfield and Attleboro.

EP, with McLane Environmental, developed a groundwater model which was used to determine the optimal pumping scenarios at the Foxborough wellfield to minimize impacts to the Witch Pond Complex. Model results document the complex hydrogeologic conditions, competing issues, and need for an Integrated Management Plan for wellfield pumping near Witch Pond.

The post Witch Pond Hydrogeologic Modeling appeared first on Environmental Partners.

EP is currently assisting several municipalities with Catchment Investigations of their drainage systems as part of their Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) Program. Identifying and removing any illicit connections is essential to stormwater system maintenance. As part of the NPDES Phase II Stormwater MS4 Permit; Massachusetts communities will need to complete these inspections of their MS4 catchment areas by 2028.

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